Giving It All Away

Posted on April 26th, 2018

by Rab Bruce’s Spider

So Carwyn Jones, First Minister of Wales, is happy to agree to Westminster’s Power Grab. After all, it’s only going to allow the UK Government seven years in which to dismantle devolution and pass laws on a range of devolved matters. Surely they can’t do too much damage in seven years, can they? After all, they haven’t done much damage to society in the past seven years.

One wonders what sort of thinking allows Carwyn Jones to adopt this stance. Has he, perhaps, been put under pressure by Jeremy Corbyn? Corbyn, after all, is very much a UK supremacist when it comes to matters of devolution, and he’s very keen on Brexit, so having the Welsh Government surrender to Westminster is very much in his interests.

But Carwyn Jones need not worry about the consequences of his decision. After all, he has announced he will be stepping down as First Minister of Wales in the autumn. Job done. It will be interesting to see what sort of reward he receives for his long service to UK politics. One thing he probably won’t be able to do for much longer is remain a member of the Welsh Parliament since the Power Grab will give Westminster the ability to scrap devolution entirely.

The BBC and other media in Scotland have pounced on the capitulation to Westminster’s demands to portray the Scottish Government as isolated and unreasonable for not agreeing to the same deal as Wales. This means that the wider population in Scotland remains ignorant of the danger facing us. Let’s hope the Scottish Government sticks to its guns on this because there is a very real threat that we will soon see the end of devolution as we know it. Westminster wants powers which could wreck the Scottish food and drink industry as well as causing much other damage. Fracking will be back on the agenda, along with reductions in animal safeguards and food standards. Everyone knows Scottish food produce is regarded as being among the best in the world, but agreeing to the Power Grab could end that.

It has been pointed out that the Withdrawal Bill is like a rapist’s charter; saying Yes is consent, saying nothing is consent, saying No is consent. And the Scottish media are blaming the potential rape victim for being unreasonable.

The way things are going, there are only two things that can save us from perpetual Tory rule and the wholesale savaging of Scotland’s agricultural and fishing industries. We can hope that the whole Brexit shambles collapses, which is still a possibility even though its likelihood is fading as time passes, or we can hope that enough scots wake up to what is going on to demand we scrap the Treaty of Union and become a normal country again.

Rab Bruce's Spider is a collaborative blog site where individuals who support Scottish Independence can express their views. If you would like to contribute, please email your suggested article to ga.author@sky.com.